CM: Monica, Frank and Maria "Photon" Rambeau Appreciation 2020

[Hypestyle]

I'm still wanting Monica to have a fight with the Phoenix Force... I feel she's virtually equal but my guess is a lot of f_nboys don't... Heck, Monica should be able to duplicate its power, to a degree...

[XPac]

Which is odd, because one of the problems with writing many characters that have been fleshed out to the nines is that you lose the freedom to tell unique and interesting stories. The sheer weight of some character's mythos makes it all but impossible to tell some stories without retconning or reinterpreting some facet of their history. One would think that Monica's rather minimal background would entice writers, not scare them off.

I think the freedom of it is potentially enticing.

BUt because there's no history or backstory, most writers didn't grow up being fans of the mythos and imaging as kids what sort of stories they could tell if they grew up and became a comic book writer. I think that's part of the appeal of writing for marvel or DC, as opposed to doing creater owned stuff.

So I suppose a fleshed out developed backstory can be seen as a plus or a minus depending on how you look at it.

[JudicatorPrime]

I think the freedom of it is potentially enticing.

BUt because there's no history or backstory, most writers didn't grow up being fans of the mythos and imaging as kids what sort of stories they could tell if they grew up and became a comic book writer. I think that's part of the appeal of writing for marvel or DC, as opposed to doing creater owned stuff.

So I suppose a fleshed out developed backstory can be seen as a plus or a minus depending on how you look at it.

I see your point.

Still, as someone who grew up reading comics, if you told me that I had a chance to write a character like Monica who has an awesome powerset and very little in her background that needs to be reworked, I'd be over the moon. But if you told me that I had to write someone like the Falcon -- well, I'd be over the moon about the opportunity, but not necessarily about the character that I was assigned...unless I had the freedom to completely reimagine Sam, which would no doubt tick off some of his fans. Sam's history is just way too constraining for my liking.

[EMPulse]

What I would love to see in Monica's future storyline:
1) Where her parents are.

2) What she has been up to after No Road Home. How did she give Vision most of her energy when all he needed was to charge like a cellphone? At the time she had unlimited power thanks to Blue Marvel.

3) Does she still own and Captain their family charter cruise?

4) Beyond and how they connect with Monica. Bonus flashback: How it really started with Prof Leclaire and Roxxon.

5) Her stint on Nextwave and possible team-up. Meltdown is in trouble over at Krakoa, if she calls on Monica for help that would be awesome! Unlikely but I can dream.

6) flashback: time between avengers #294 to her 1st one shot. Did she want to kill Dr. Druid? Did any of the avengers visit? Where was she mentally after losing her powers, her weight and chairwomanship.


7) Black Panther mentioned she has the power of a god. Marvel please, she's an Omega level superhero, a sun goddess.

8) Her relationship with Adam

9) I would love to see her go dark/evil. I think she's the only hero who didn't go mad and bat-**** crazy on her fellow superheroes. It's about time Tony or any of the SmartMarvel geniuses finds a clever way to really neutralize her, not like absorbing her into his armor. It's been done by Tony a lot.

10) Finally I hope to see her looking sexy again. Last time I remember her lookin hot was Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16. Artist besides Land have portrayed her looking like Viola Davis (no diss, she's just older) when she should really look young, like Teyonah Parris.
�� peace love and happiness

[Micabe]

If Monica lost the augmentation(s) to her electromagnetic abilities that Blue Marvel infused her with -- when she lost them was she to reduced to her original power levels?

[JudicatorPrime]

If Monica lost the augmentation(s) to her electromagnetic abilities that Blue Marvel infused her with -- when she lost them was she to reduced to her original power levels?

My understanding is that she's back to where she was when she first became Captain Marvel. Ewing tried to establish that she somehow exhausted all of her top level power and in doing so reverted back to her original power scale, but that doesn't make any sense at all, since the changes that Adam made to Monica were at the molecular level. There is nothing that she did in all of No Road Home that changed her molecular structure. Something doesn't add up.

I really think that isn't Monica that came back from NRH. I think it's Nyx or one of her children masquerading as Monica. Kind of a "turnabout is fair play" deal, since Monica used her light powers to make an illusion that got Nyx's children killed -- by Nyx no less. The real Monica is probably trapped somewhere in a Dark Force dimension prison of Nyx's design getting tortured daily. Meanwhile the Nyx-Monica doppelganger is back on Earth stealing Monica's life, maybe even as far as seducing Adam Brashear in order to conceive new children to replace the ones that Monica took from her. Or something vengeful and petty like that.

[Will Evans]

My understanding is that she's back to where she was when she first became Captain Marvel. Ewing tried to establish that she somehow exhausted all of her top level power and in doing so reverted back to her original power scale, but that doesn't make any sense at all, since the changes that Adam made to Monica were at the molecular level. There is nothing that she did in all of No Road Home that changed her molecular structure. Something doesn't add up.

I really think that isn't Monica that came back from NRH. I think it's Nyx or one of her children masquerading as Monica. Kind of a "turnabout is fair play" deal, since Monica used her light powers to make an illusion of Nyx's kids that got them killed. The real Monica is probably trapped somewhere in a dark force dimension prison of Nyx's design getting tortured daily. Meanwhile the Nyx-Monica is back on Earth stealing Monica's life, maybe even as far as seducing Adam Brashear in order to conceive new children to replace the ones that Monica took from her. Or something vengeful and petty like that.

That......would be an interesting story.

This Nyx Kid is essentially Dark Avenger Monica. Like Moonstone to Carol or Bullseye to Clint.

Or Veranke to Jessica Drew.

[Micabe]

My understanding is that she's back to where she was when she first became Captain Marvel. Ewing tried to establish that she somehow exhausted all of her top level power and in doing so reverted back to her original power scale, but that doesn't make any sense at all, since the changes that Adam made to Monica were at the molecular level. There is nothing that she did in all of No Road Home that changed her molecular structure. Something doesn't add up.

Thanks... I was thought that made no sense as well.

I really think that isn't Monica that came back from NRH. I think it's Nyx or one of her children masquerading as Monica. Kind of a "turnabout is fair play" deal, since Monica used her light powers to make an illusion that got Nyx's children killed -- by Nyx no less. The real Monica is probably trapped somewhere in a Dark Force dimension prison of Nyx's design getting tortured daily. Meanwhile the Nyx-Monica doppelganger is back on Earth stealing Monica's life, maybe even as far as seducing Adam Brashear in order to conceive new children to replace the ones that Monica took from her. Or something vengeful and petty like that.

Now, that's a theory I can get behind... Good stuff

[EMPulse]

https://screenrant.com/marvel-most-p...beyonders/amp/

Interesting. Didn't see a connection with a cosmic cube I'm guessing it's MCU synergy.

[JudicatorPrime]

https://screenrant.com/marvel-most-p...beyonders/amp/

Interesting. Didn't see a connection with a cosmic cube I'm guessing it's MCU synergy.

Not sure about the MCU, but the Beyonder has been speculatively linked to the Cosmic Cube since the advent of Secret Wars. The article mentions it briefly, although it didn't mention Owen Reece at all:

The first Beyonder appeared in 1984's Secret Wars #1, presenting itself as a unique power, earning the title of 'the Beyonder' (later revealed to be the equivalent of a child). After spiriting a group of major Marvel heroes and villains to the patchwork Battleworld, this Beyonder experimented with taking a human form. Though various stories have suggested that Beyonders are the adult form of Cosmic Cubes, there have also been suggestions that the Beyonders grow their young in pocket realities and even that they're the result of an ultra-powerful Inhuman losing his grip on reality. So great is their mastery over the universe.

As with the early days of the Soul Gems (now called Infinity Stones), every writer is going to take a stab at trying to define the true nature of Beyonders, Cosmic Cubes and pretty much every other source of "omnipotence" in the Marvel Universe. Nothing is ever really immutable and set in stone.

And while we're on the topic, did I mention yet that I think that the extradimensional energy source that Monica tapped into is probably also Beyonder-related, which is why they particularly enjoyed mucking with her in both Nextwave and Mighty Avengers? It also explains why Nyx didn't recognize Monica's energy, since Beyonders operate outside of the known universe that is familiar to the gods. But again, pure speculation.

[EMPulse]

JP - amazing speculation. I always thought the dimension that her powers are derived from are cosmic in nature. First the obvious, it's not in our universe if I remember her origin. 2nd it seems her powers was limitless only hindered by whichever writer was writing at that time. Thirdly when she lost her original EM power and was replaced by a more solid/physical energy but from the same dimension, per Reed in her 1st one shot. During Quasar's Starblast(i think) the Stranger was able to restore her powers. The Stranger must have known her energy signature because he's an Elder of the Universe. He's familiar with a cosmic cube/ Beyonders.

Btw she also had no trouble turning into another cosmic energy, Isotope 8 over in Ewing's Ultimates. I wonder
does that mean Spectrum can duplicate or become a cosmic cube?

[JudicatorPrime]

JP - amazing speculation. I always thought the dimension that her powers are derived from are cosmic in nature. First the obvious, it's not in our universe if I remember her origin. 2nd it seems her powers was limitless only hindered by whichever writer was writing at that time. Thirdly when she lost her original EM power and was replaced by a more solid/physical energy but from the same dimension, per Reed in her 1st one shot. During Quasar's Starblast(i think) the Stranger was able to restore her powers. The Stranger must have known her energy signature because he's an Elder of the Universe. He's familiar with a cosmic cube/ Beyonders.

Btw she also had no trouble turning into another cosmic energy, Isotope 8 over in Ewing's Ultimates. I wonder
does that mean Spectrum can duplicate or become a cosmic cube?

Re: The Stranger, agreed. We're told that other civilizations have created Cosmic Cubes. The Shaper of Worlds is one of them, but presumably there have been advanced civiliations far older than the Skrull empire that likely also created their own versions of Cosmic Cubes. The Stranger would know about them, being the explorer, scientist and collector of rare scientific artifacts that he is.

Hmmm...now that I think about it, I suppose it's also possible that there were Cosmic Cubes in some of the previous iterations of the cosmos. I wonder if Galan heard of anything like the Cosmic Cube in his native cosmos? Maybe it was called something else, but basically operates the same. And what about the cosmos that was purely magic based? I wonder what that equivalent of magic based Cosmic Cube would look like and operate?

Getting back to Monica, to me the biggest improvement in her abilities is that she's no longer limited to just electromagnetic energies. Since the cross-company stories are all canon, Monica is also capable of changing into Green Lantern energies, which can only mean she can match all of the properties of the other colors of the Lantern spectrum as well. Marvel won't/can't do it, but if Monica one day used the powerful energies of, say, a White Lantern ring to raise the dead, I would be floored. That would make my day. It doesn't even have to be Lantern energies, just Marvel's analogous take on it. Some people think she's already too powerful now. Well, Madame Spectrum would be the undisputed queen of OP if that happened.

[EMPulse]

Have you read her arc in Strikeforce? It kinda sounds like that. I apologize I have not read any recent GL stories and I'm unfamiliar with a White Lantern.
A Spectrum sighting fr Empyre #6 Empyre6.jpg

Madame Spectrum as an evil persona like Malice/Sue

[XPac]

Have you read her arc in Strikeforce? It kinda sounds like that. I apologize I have not read any recent GL stories and I'm unfamiliar with a White Lantern.
A Spectrum sighting fr Empyre #6 Empyre6.jpg

Madame Spectrum as an evil persona like Malice/Sue

It's cool to see that when marvel wants a few extra Avengers in a story, Blue Marvel and Spectrum come to mind.

Makes me wish more we had another Avengers book.

[Dermie]

It's cool to see that when marvel wants a few extra Avengers in a story, Blue Marvel and Spectrum come to mind.

Makes me wish more we had another Avengers book.

Agreed completely on a 2nd Avengers book to give some of the others like Spectrum, Janet, Clint, Simon, Bobbi, etc, somewhere to appear.

And yes, Spectrum should pretty much always be included for those "call in all the reserves!" situations. As Busiek's run pointed out she is both one of the members who most fully embraces the spirit of the team AND is one of those "if you need me, I'll be there" members--and with her speed, she almost always CAN be there regardless of how far away she was when the call went out. As one of the most powerful members, she's definitely one of the first members you'd think they'd reach out to in any crisis big enough to call in back-up!